Parviz Khatibi was a prolific journalist, writer, director, playwright, songwriter, satirist and social and political critic. At age 13, his first poem was published in the only satire newspaper of that time, Towfigh. At age 17 he became Towfigh’s youngest editor in chief and at 21, he began publishing his own weekly political satire paper called Bahram, and later Ali Baba. The papers were characteristically bold in their criticisms of Iranian social situations; Ali Baba was banned from publication by the government numerous times until it was finally forced to discontinue completely. At that time Khatibi began to publish yet another paper: Haji Baba. After the coup of 1953 and its subsequent suffocation of free press, Haji Baba was banned by law, and Parviz Khatibi was imprisoned and banned from working for any Iranian government entity for many years to come. In the wake of the revolution of 1979, Khatibi once again began producing Haji Baba but the post-revolutionary freedom of press was short lived and Haji Baba was soon re-banned and Khatibi forced into exile. Khatibi first settled in New York where he resumed the publishing of Haji Baba. Khatibi continued to produce work for theatre, radio and film until his death in 1993 in Los Angeles.

It is difficult to chart Khatibi’s career as he was active and iconoclastic across many media. He was a successful playwright, a key player in the golden years of Radio Iran (he hosted a popular 4 hour morning show amongst other roles), an accomplished film directer (over 20 pictures under his belt) and on top of all this, he happened to have penned the lyrics to Bordi Az Yadam, one of the most iconic songs of Persian pop history.

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